Nigeria’s central bank sustains forex market intervention

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Wednesday, again sustained its supply in the inter-bank foreign exchange market with the sum of $210 million.

The Bank offered the sum of $100 million to authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market while interests in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment received the sum of $55 million. Also, the sum of $55 million was apportioned to invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA).

Confirming the figures, Isaac Okorafor, the CBN’s acting director, corporate communications department, said the Bank’s continued intervention forex market is to ensure the availability of foreign exchange to genuine customers.

He urged the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to continue to comply with the Bank’s directive to sell forex over the counter to customers with legitimate needs so as to sustain the confidence in the foreign exchange market.

It will be recalled that the CBN had recently ordered banks not to deny genuine travelers Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Business Travel Allowance (BTA) as there are enough dollar supplies to meet the demand. This was followed by Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, leading bank examiners to conduct on-the-spot assessment of forex sales in the DMBs on Monday, May 28, 2018.

Meanwhile, the Naira, on Wednesday, exchanged at an average of N363/$1 in the BDC segment of the market.